My Basenjis

Our long way to the Basenji

We always had dogs. The oldest one passed away in an age of 19.

During our trips to Eastern Africa (Kenya) we got in touch with many pleasant

natives. The daughter of a hotel owner had a heart for stray animals. Between

them a "typical african dog", lovely appearance, the eyes of a lion, the figure

of a gazelle. The coat was damaged by thornbushes, she got afraid by the

sight of a gun and the smell of burned down cottages. She had presumely immigrated from a neighboring country bothered by civil war. Congo? Somalia?

On request we took her to Germany in 1994.

"Emily" had never seen a collar or leash before. Here in Germany it was still her

force of habit to catch and eat rabbits instead of canned dog food. So we went

to an obidience school including examination. She finished with brillant performance.

After this she started at a home for elderly people as therapeutic dog with big

success (at least two times in TV). She died 15 years old.

Fortuitously we saw a foto of a basenji in a newspaper and found it looked like

Emily. So we took her to a specialist for this breed. His crushing comment was:

as father and mother are unknown this is just a pariah dog. If you want to own a

real basenji you should buy it from a registered basenji-breeder.

We bought Medea with long pedigree from Sweden (Kennel Yulara). She is a wonderful basenji, fitting perfect the man-made standard but "something" got lost

under this long period of breeding in accordance to beauty.

Two years later we got the information that there was a basenji available, born by

a mother directly from the Congo. We bought her from the same kennel. Our

assumption was right. Ruya is independent and attached to the family, friendly to other dogs, good-natured and eager to learn. All this (maybe) due to the natural

selection in the bush.

Yulara Medea and Yulara Ruya are co-owned by Mia Löwbeer,Kennel Yulara.Sweden. The name of our kennel "Tamulara" is based on this friendly contact. "Tamu" means "sweet" in Swahili and was connected with "Yulara".